Encinal High graduate returns as keynote speaker

Memorial Day in Alameda has long been commemorated with a ceremony at Veterans Park near the Bay Farm Island Bridge on Veterans Court. The annual ceremony is set for Monday, May 30, at 11 a.m.

This year’s keynote speaker is Patrick Harris who graduated Encinal High School in 1966. Chief Harris retired from public service in 2003, serving as the first chief of staff of the Maritime and Land Security Office of the Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security. 

Prior to that, his military career spanned four decades, which included more than 8,000 flight hours of combat, search and rescue, disaster relief and humanitarian missions for both the Army and the Coast Guard.

Chief Harris directed the initial maritime response in New York Harbor after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, for which he was awarded the Legion of Merit. 

He was an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam and Germany, and a police officer in Modesto, Calif., before joining the Coast Guard.